I don't believe a knuckleballer has ever won the Cy Young award. Dickey's overall numbers on a bad team certainly merit strong consideration. Will he overcome the built-in bias against knuckleballers and win the award?

There should be another question also: Should the Twins' manager and pitching coach be held accountable for letting R.A. Dickey go, while they were planning a season (2011) with Brian Duensing and Nick Blackburn as starters ahead of him?

There should be another question also: Should the Twins' manager and pitching coach be held accountable for letting R.A. Dickey go, while they were planning a season (2011) with Brian Duensing and Nick Blackburn as starters ahead of him?

I'm not sure what the Twins were thinking back in 09 when they cut Dickey. Likely what most everybody else in baseball didn't see, as well. Give the Mets credit for understanding the evolution of a knuckleballer learning on the job. The guy has averaged 200+ innings, 30 starts/yr, 22.33 quality starts/yr, 2.91 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 6.8K/9 in his 3 years as a Met starter. The Mets obviously saw a huge opportunity with a cheap asset and made the most of it. Regarding Gardy/Anderson, they certainly had input and the ability to tell Bill Smith "thumbs up/thumbs down" on sticking with him. Whoever originally signed Dickey on the Twins has to be credited for signing him by seeing the potential, hopefully whomever that was still is a voice to be listened to in the Twins FO.

I guess I don't feel the need to place blame on an organization who let go of a minor league free agent who, in 35 games for the Twins in 2009, posted a 4.62 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP, who in 64.1 innings gave up 74 hits, walked 30 and struck out just 42.

Blackburn was coming off of his second straight 11-11 season with an ERA just over 4 .He also threw 205 innings.

Duensing was thrown into the rotation in mid-August and went 5-1 with a 2.79 ERA down the stretch of a pennant race.

I guess I don't feel the need to place blame on an organization who let go of a minor league free agent who, in 35 games for the Twins in 2009, posted a 4.62 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP, who in 64.1 innings gave up 74 hits, walked 30 and struck out just 42.

Blackburn was coming off of his second straight 11-11 season with an ERA just over 4 .He also threw 205 innings.

Duensing was thrown into the rotation in mid-August and went 5-1 with a 2.79 ERA down the stretch of a pennant race.

That fails to account for what the Mets were able to get out of Dickey, immediately, inserting him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. The Mets obviously saw a lot more in working with, and developing Dickey, and understanding the evolution of knuckleball mastery than in trying to acquire just more mediocrity in guys like Blackburn and Duensing.

Whoever originally signed Dickey on the Twins has to be credited for signing him by seeing the potential, hopefully whomever that was still is a voice to be listened to in the Twins FO.

Little inside dirt here (and this is kinda "common" knowledge: ) The same person who pushed for Dickie to come in is the same person who practically showed him the door.(and GardyNAndy gave the thumbs up.) Here goes the story: Since the early parts of last decade a certain General Manager was so obsessed to prove a point from his scouting days that a knuckleball is a formidable weapon indoors, which made him actually bid the sky for an average free agent knuckleballer and made his team match it in every opportunity he saw. Google "Twins" and "Wakefield" and you will find some interesting stuff about Terry Ryan's "love affair" with knuckleballs indoors. Wakefield re-signed with Boston (a couple of times), the opportunity arose. RA, Dickey was around... he can throw the knuckleball. So that happened. Then the new stadium happened. So the Twins did not play outdoors any more so a knuckleballer was not needed to prove the interim's theory. So bye bye RA, welcome Mr Marquis, (you know those outdoor stadiums have underground rodents so you need ground ball pitchers to kill them...)

That fails to account for what the Mets were able to get out of Dickey, immediately, inserting him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. The Mets obviously saw a lot more in working with, and developing Dickey, and understanding the evolution of knuckleball mastery than in trying to acquire just more mediocrity in guys like Blackburn and Duensing.

---The Mets deserve some credit for picking him up. But they did not insert him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. They signed him to a minor league contract in January, and he started the year in AAA.

I'm happy to see RA have the year he's having. He's obviously had some real personal demons to deal with along the way.

I'm not sure how much you can fault the Twins any more than you can fault the 28 other major league teams that passed on him. It's not like there was a rush to sign this guy when he went on the market. And I doubt the Mets even thought he'd do as well as he has.

He was a journeyman in his mid-30's when the Twins decided not to bring him back. I don't recall a groundswell of support for doing otherwise, and certainly not anyone claiming that if we just waited a few more years, we'd have a Cy Young contender on our hands.

Yeah, I just think it's a nice story. We knew that the Twins had long talked about wanting a knuckleballer in the Dome. In fact, they had signed Dickey the year before (2007-08 offseason) to a minor league contract, but they signed him too early and he was taken in the Rule 5 draft by Seattle. They waited until after the Rule 5 draft in 2008 to sign him.

Dickey's knuckleball is unlike any other knuckleball in history. He throws it 10-15 mph harder than typical knuckleball pitchers. There was certainly a thought that, if he ever was able to make it work, he could be very good. Nothing in 2009 showed that was going to happen any time soon.

That fails to account for what the Mets were able to get out of Dickey, immediately, inserting him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. The Mets obviously saw a lot more in working with, and developing Dickey, and understanding the evolution of knuckleball mastery than in trying to acquire just more mediocrity in guys like Blackburn and Duensing.

---The Mets deserve some credit for picking him up. But they did not insert him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. They signed him to a minor league contract in January, and he started the year in AAA.

I'm happy to see RA have the year he's having. He's obviously had some real personal demons to deal with along the way.

I'm not sure how much you can fault the Twins any more than you can fault the 28 other major league teams that passed on him. It's not like there was a rush to sign this guy when he went on the market. And I doubt the Mets even thought he'd do as well as he has.

He was a journeyman in his mid-30's when the Twins decided not to bring him back. I don't recall a groundswell of support for doing otherwise, and certainly not anyone claiming that if we just waited a few more years, we'd have a Cy Young contender on our hands.

Dickey started the year in AAA because of money previously committed to John Maine ($3.3M), but especially to Oliver Perez ($12M). Dickey started out of the gates in AAA with a series of dominating performances, by far producing the best MiL numbers in his career. As Perez and Maine self-destructed, Dickey first started for the Mets on May 19 and ended up with the third-most innings on the staff (174), the best ERA (2.84- better than Johan) and only 1/100 higher WHIP than Johan (1.18).

As I stated in my previous post:

"I'm not sure what the Twins were thinking back in 09 when they cut Dickey. Likely what most everybody else in baseball didn't see, as well. Give the Mets credit for understanding the evolution of a knuckleballer learning on the job."

The Mets saw something that the other clubs didn't. For one thing, as there is little strain on a pitching arm from tossing knucklers, age is irrelevant to consideration of potential value. Mastering the knucker requires years of practice and great patience from the club that has his rights. It's fairly obvious that through a combination of Dickey's pitching maturation and possibly some credit to the Mets coaching staff- along with their willingness to show confidence in him, they found themselves a great bargain.

I guess I don't feel the need to place blame on an organization who let go of a minor league free agent who, in 35 games for the Twins in 2009, posted a 4.62 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP, who in 64.1 innings gave up 74 hits, walked 30 and struck out just 42.

Blackburn was coming off of his second straight 11-11 season with an ERA just over 4 .He also threw 205 innings.

Duensing was thrown into the rotation in mid-August and went 5-1 with a 2.79 ERA down the stretch of a pennant race.

That fails to account for what the Mets were able to get out of Dickey, immediately, inserting him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. The Mets obviously saw a lot more in working with, and developing Dickey, and understanding the evolution of knuckleball mastery than in trying to acquire just more mediocrity in guys like Blackburn and Duensing.

Yeah, his crappy record as a Twin fails to account for how he did with the Mets. Granted, that was in the future at the time you were supposed to have know about it. Don't you know you should have a crystal ball?

[quote name='jokin'][quote name='one_eyed_jack'][quote name='jokin']That fails to account for what the Mets were able to get out of Dickey, immediately, inserting him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. The Mets obviously saw a lot more in working with, and developing Dickey, and understanding the evolution of knuckleball mastery than in trying to acquire just more mediocrity in guys like Blackburn and Duensing.[/QUOTE]

---The Mets deserve some credit for picking him up. But they did not insert him as one of their starters coming out of the gate in 2010. They signed him to a minor league contract in January, and he started the year in AAA.

I'm happy to see RA have the year he's having. He's obviously had some real personal demons to deal with along the way.

I'm not sure how much you can fault the Twins any more than you can fault the 28 other major league teams that passed on him. It's not like there was a rush to sign this guy when he went on the market. And I doubt the Mets even thought he'd do as well as he has.

He was a journeyman in his mid-30's when the Twins decided not to bring him back. I don't recall a groundswell of support for doing otherwise, and certainly not anyone claiming that if we just waited a few more years, we'd have a Cy Young contender on our hands.[/QUOTE]

Dickey started the year in AAA because of money previously committed to John Maine ($3.3M), but especially to Oliver Perez ($12M). Dickey started out of the gates in AAA with a series of dominating performances, by far producing the best MiL numbers in his career. As Perez and Maine self-destructed, Dickey first started for the Mets on May 19 and ended up with the third-most innings on the staff (174), the best ERA (2.84- better than Johan) and only 1/100 higher WHIP than Johan (1.18).

As I stated in my previous post:

"I'm not sure what the Twins were thinking back in 09 when they cut Dickey. Likely what most everybody else in baseball didn't see, as well. Give the Mets credit for understanding the evolution of a knuckleballer learning on the job."

The Mets saw something that the other clubs didn't. For one thing, as there is little strain on a pitching arm from tossing knucklers, age is irrelevant to consideration of potential value. Mastering the knucker requires years of practice and great patience from the club that has his rights. It's fairly obvious that through a combination of Dickey's pitching maturation and possibly some credit to the Mets coaching staff- along with their willingness to show confidence in him, they found themselves a great bargain.[/QUOTE]

The majors are not filled with many knuckleballers. The Twins gave him a year. His statistics were not great. Nor were they much different than at any other stop he made since he went to the knuckler. It would be likely that someone with the Mets taught him something. Is it the control of the knuckleball that improved or is it they improved his other pitches so they did not get pounded. Did he change his approach how he pitched? To say it is is maturation of the knuckler is an assumption you are making without bassis. Look back at the careers of the Niekros. They went to the knuckler without a 4-5 year period on the fringe. Wakefield did not even start out as a pitcher and made the transition within a few years from low minors to the majors. Not the

I have a hard time faulting the Twins too much or giving too much praise to the Mets for Dickey. In everything I've read about the guy, one day things just "clicked". It doesn't appear it was anything done by the Mets or that even Dickey himself knows what happened.

Every team had multiple chances at Dickey. Several of them signed him and then let him go. There was no indication that he'd suddenly figure it out or when that would happen. Kudos to Dickey for turning the corner but trying to lay blame on the Twins for letting him go is the worst form of after-the-fact armchair GMing.

For those of you who criticize the move, where were you two years ago? Because I didn't hear a peep from the Twins community at large. Nobody cared about Dickey.

I have a hard time faulting the Twins too much or giving too much praise to the Mets for Dickey. In everything I've read about the guy, one day things just "clicked". It doesn't appear it was anything done by the Mets or that even Dickey himself knows what happened.

Every team had multiple chances at Dickey. Several of them signed him and then let him go. There was no indication that he'd suddenly figure it out or when that would happen. Kudos to Dickey for turning the corner but trying to lay blame on the Twins for letting him go is the worst form of after-the-fact armchair GMing.

For those of you who criticize the move, where were you two years ago? Because I didn't hear a peep from the Twins community at large. Nobody cared about Dickey.

Exactly, the guy had a 5/4 K/BB Ratio in his time with pretty much every team before the Mets. (and had a 5.13 ERA in AAA for the Twins) its not like they were letting go a 25 year old kid with promise, they were letting a 35 year old pitcher who at no time had shown any reason to think he would be anything more then organizational depth.